Vernon Forrest gunned down in Atlanta

Former welterweight champion Vernon Forrest was murdered in Atlanta on Saturday night.  Reports are indicating that Forrest was shot seven to eight times during an apparent robbery.  The suspects are still at large.

Forrest, 38, will be known at OTR for his battles against Sugar Shane Mosley and the cigarette smoking Ricardo Mayorga.  In the prime of his career, Vernon fought the highly favored Mosley twice, beating him both times and becoming the WBC welterweight champion of the world.  The two wins also earned him Ring Magazine 2002 fighter of the year.

In 2003, Forrest met his match by losing two bouts against  Mayorga, the WBA welterweight champion.  During the second fight, Mayorga continuosly stuck his chin out, taunting Forrest.  In an interview after the fight Mayorga commented,  “I wanted him to know that he couldn’t hurt me.  I know it’s not a wise thing to want to get hit, and Mr. King told me after the fight that he doesn’t want to see me doing that again, but it’s what I wanted to do at the time.  I wanted to let him know that I was the boss, I was his daddy, I was the champ.”

But being the champion Forrest was, he didn’t let the two defeats against Mayorga end his career.  In 2007, on the comeback trail, Vernon won a unaminous decision against Carlos Baldimir to once again become champion, this time winning the WBC light middleweight title.

Forrest had a career 41-3 record with 29 of the wins coming by KO.  He was a great champion and will be sorely missed in the boxing community.